the // skyway \\
the replacements mailing list
issue #92
(december 2, 2012)
issue info:
www.theskyway.com
send your submissions to mattaki@gmail.com
subscription info:
send an email saying “subscribe skyway” (and hello) to mattaki@gmail.com
The Replacements
Gainesville, Florida
July 1989
COOL WATER
How you spend your days is how you spend your life, and I spent most of the last year scuba
diving and teaching high school kids European history and abstract computer math at an
international high school here in Malta, a small island of only 420,000 people between Sicily
and Africa. It’s a place where The Replacements and indie rock in general are mostly unknown.
Of all the art forms, I think music is the most personal. Anyone from anywhere in the world
would likely look at a poppy field painted by Monet and say “well yes, that is beautiful.” But
when you find someone who listens to the same songs you do, it feels like a miracle of
serendipity. For something so universal as music is, it is one thing people hold closest to their
identity. Why do people wear concert t-shirts advertising bands? People don’t usually wear tshirts advertising their favorite authors, but music fans argue opinions as if they were facts, as if
they were dogma, or possibly self-reflections.
This is why, every year I look forward to the holiday music trade from other people who read
the Skyway. I always find some new band I never would have otherwise heard of, a local band
with a perfect song from a place that I never would have been, from a person that I would have
never otherwise met. Great songs change your day. And like I said, how you spend you days, is
how you spend your life. I just turned 40 this week. As Sandy Denny (and even better, Nina
Simone) sang, I don’t know where the time went, but I’m glad all of this – this band, these fans,
this genre, this point in music – has all been a large part of it. I can’t wait to hear everybody
else’s favorite songs.
m@.
mattaki@gmail.com
P.S. Don’t get me wrong - even in Malta, even if there aren’t many full on guitar rock bands,
there is indie rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvNgUIRZ4HQ
And in two decades of international travel, I’ve found that in the smallest village, in every
country in the entire world, there is somebody who loves metal. And Michael Jackson.
UPDATE ON BOB “SLIM” DUNLAP
Slim Dunlap, the guitarist for the Replacements for their last three albums, is still dealing with
the effects of his stroke earlier this year.
It shouldn’t take brushes with mortality to remember what you love about a person, but it is a
good chance to remind them. If you’re feeling thankful and supportive, you can send letters,
postcards, wishes, and support to the guy responsible for many solos and witty responses to
interview questions since he joined the Replacements in 1987, as well as before and after. His
wife Chrissie provided an address where you can send something to Slim:
Slim Dunlap and family
4006 Washburn Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55410 USA
Chrissie Dunlap reports he has been fighting pneumonia and:
…is suffering from this pain, primarily in his legs. It is unrelenting and excruciating. We
are seeking new drug cocktails that may help, botox, and acupuncture to try and help
him. Those of you who have visited are aware of his suffering, so I thought this info may
be helpful to know. The pain inhibits his attempts at rehab. He has an appointment with
his neurologists next week and we will explore more options--including surgery.
Please keep sending him your love!
Slim’s day job certainly doesn’t provide for medical insurance so if you have some Christmas
change, Dan Baird from the Georgia Satellites is sponsoring a relief fund for the man who has
dedicated his life to music:
https://apps.facebook.com/fundrazr/activity/9083f6d1d7934ef6954c504d5b17909f
The good news is that Slim is still Slim:
Slim has been over-medicated lately, due to the pain, and has been experiencing some
dreams and delusions. When I walked into his room tonight he said ‘I am a sur-realtor; I
can sell you some property in La-la land.’ His wit is obviously not affected.
One of the most personable stories about Slim is from Chris Koehler, who wrote:
It was 1999 and I was in the throes of separating from my then wife when I first saw
Slim play at the Turf [Club in Minneapolis]. I had a great time and after the show shared
a little of my sob story with him. I don't remember exactly what he said but I do
remember that it was ‘I get it, hang in there, it'll get better.’ And he meant it. And it
meant a lot to me. Thanks Slim.
Around that time Slim and band played at the Taste of Minnesota and I dragged my
boys to see him. The promised cheese curds and an inflatable Titanic to jump around in
helped the cause too. After they were done, Slim graciously agreed to a picture with my
boys at the steps on the side of the stage. It's one of my favorites.
Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson got together to record some covers as a benefit for Slim.
Their four songs, along with a fifth cover song by Chris Mars, will be pressed in a limited edition
of 250 copies on 10” vinyl with a cover drawn by Chris Mars and signed by Paul Westerberg,
Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars. The copies will be auctioned off as a benefit for Slim. As 89.3
The Current reports:
The track listing of the five-song EP is . . . The Replacements (Westerberg, Stinson, plus
session players Kevin Bowe and Peter Anderson) covering:
~ Dunlap's "Busted Up"
~ Broadway showtune "Everything's Coming Up Roses”
~ Gordon Lightfoot's "I'm Not Sayin'"
~ Hank Williams' "Lost Highway”
…plus a version of Dunlap's ‘Radio Hook Word Hit’ covered by Mars, with him playing
all the instruments himself.
http://blog.thecurrent.org/post/2012/10/replacements-benefit-ep-feature-fifth-track-artwork-chris-mars
Another interview in UNCUT reposted at paulwesterberg.com gives some more details:
’We did ask Chris to joins us’, says Stinson. ‘He considered it but ultimately didn’t feel
so much like recording with us. I think he doesn’t necessarily want to play anymore, so I
wasn’t so surprised by it.’
‘What shocked me most about these new recordings’ marvels Jespersen, ‘is they have the
same flavor of those old Replacements records. They’re loose, fun, and totally rock.’
Stinson, meanwhile, doesn’t completely discount a more concerted Replacements
reunion. ‘Paul came to the studio with some new songs he wanted to pull out too,’ the
guitarist reveals, ‘But we were only there for one purpose at the time. So maybe we’ll go
back and record again towards the end of the year. I think Paul’s probably fuckin’ sick of
playing by himself in his basement. Every year the promoters start calling and offering
piles of money for us to get together again. But it’s never really going to happen unless
we feel it’s the right time.’
Westerberg, who prefers the sanctuary of his Minneapolis home these says, remains
something of a mercurial figure. Jespersen keeps in touch but admits he’s ‘a little
reclusive’, while manager Darren Hill says he’s very much a law unto himself. After
initially sounding hopeful of a Westerberg interview, he concedes that ‘it appears Paul
has gone underground on us again.’
Stinson insists that Westerberg, who recently declared a Replacements reunion ‘possible’,
was ‘the most focused and together that I’ve seen him for some time. He seemed
genuinely into recording again. I think both of us would like to do it again and he’s in
fuckin’ great shape.’
http://paulwesterberg.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=generalpw&thread=7616&page=1#121823
You can hear Chris Mars’ song about Slim, “When I Fall Down”, here. It sounds like his other
solo songs. (For somebody that is apparently sick of playing music, he hasn’t forgotten a trick.)
http://blog.thecurrent.org/post/2012/06/chris-mars-pens-new-song-replacements-bandmate-slim-dunlap
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150978744995839
The great news is this is just the start of a series of singles to support Slim. The Current 89.3
reports future charity singles will come from Frank Black, The Jayhawks, Tommy Keene, Deer
Tick, Jakob Dylan, NRBQ, The Young Fresh Fellows, You Am I, and more.
In addition, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in early 2013 the Replacements’ old
manager Peter Jesperson’s record label New West will be putting out a record of people
covering Slim’s songs, including “Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, John Doe, Jakob Dylan, Joe
Henry” and the the Jayhawks.
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/179322441.html
And for the most touching story I have ever heard about Slim, Adam Gimbels’ stories of
meeting Slim at his concerts confirms what a clever guy he is, but the one where he called up
his girlfriend in the hospital when she was dying of cancer is touching beyond what any fiction
could dream up.
http://yerdoingreat.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/get-well-soon-slim-dunlap/
Get well soon, Slim.
COLOR ME IMPRESSED
If you haven’t seen it yet, Color Me Obsessed is a movie by filmmaker and author Gorman
Bechard that shows the influence and story of the Replacements’ solely through interviews with
friends and fans of the band. The movie has finally been released on DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Me-Obsessed-about-Replacements/dp/B0091JJ24Q/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y
I saw Color Me Obsessed at a film festival in Rijeka, Croatia earlier this year. This is a movie
about a band that doesn’t interview any surviving band members, doesn’t play a single one of
their songs, and has more photos of their fans in 1985 than of the band itself. Is this an avant
garde art thesis? No, it is an oral history of one of America’s best rock bands.
If you aren’t already familiar with the Replacements, this isn’t the equivalent of a VH1 Special
that will explain it to you. Excerpts of interviews about the band’s history and albums are
organized chronologically, but if you don’t know who Paul, Tommy, Bob, Chris, and Slim are, it
is like walking into somebody else’s Christmas dinner where everybody is talking about family
members they have already known their whole lives. This is the first movie I’ve seen where the
main characters are barely seen and only discussed. That leads to the question of who the film
is really about: is it a visual social history about a rock band, or is it a movie about the people
who loved a band over two decades ago and still do even more so today? Ultimately, it’s both.
For Replacements fans, this movie is the definitive biography of the band from those who were
there. It has firsthand answers from people like Young Fresh Fellows guitarist Scott McCaughey,
who gives a backstage view of what actually happened during the infamous December 1987
Pine Theater concert that led to the inscription of “We’re sorry, Portland” on the vinyl of Don’t
Tell a Soul. A touchingly bittersweet interview with Carleen Stinson tells what it was like first
dating Bob. There are plausible explanations for the mysterious titles of Tim and “Shooting Dirty
Pool”. Matt Wallace has the chance to talk about what the band was attempting on the band’s
arguably most divisive record, Don’t Tell a Soul. (I won’t spoil the answers, you have to see it for
yourself.) The movie breathlessly switches between the band’s history to the personal stories of
the fans, who twenty years after the band’s last show casually talk about how the band affects
them to this day. Elaine Pan’s story of how finding the band as a teen meant finding someone
who she could finally relate to is a moment any music fan knows.
Even though the documentary already runs 123 minutes, and to its credit, as a Replacements
fan it made me walk away wanting even more: I wanted to see some of the interviews in their
entirety, such as Archers of Loaf bassist Matt Gentling and even professional curmudgeon
Robert Christgau, whose contrary opinion is at least hilarious even when not agreeable (“You’d
kick Bob Stinson out of your band too!”) There are people I wish the movie could have heard
from, such as Bill Calahan, author of the original Willpower fanzine and later of Smog fame. Bill
was an early fan of the band and quit publishing his magazine around the time Bob Stinson left,
most likely reflecting the outcry from fans described in the movie. Another person it would
have been great to hear from is Superchunk/Guided By Voices/Bob Mould drummer and
comedian Jon Wurster, whose ‘Mats fandom knows no bounds. For any fan, this movie could
never be comprehensive enough, and I could only hope someday Gorman Bechard could make
the full interviews of people like Mac McCaughan available for download or in an extended
edition.
In the end, there’s a feeling that twenty years on, many of the people who were around when
the Replacements were together are now retired from the rock business, yet their memories
are as emphatic as if the band only broke up last month. The showing in Rijeka was attended
mostly by members of Croatia’s small rock underground, which sums up the band perfectly:
even if they weren’t the most popular band in the world, the few that heard them went on to
start bands of their own that carry the torch for indie rock today. When some kid with a guitar
in his bedroom 40 years from now wants to know what it was like to see the Replacements, this
is how they’ll hear the story firsthand.
It turns out Color Me Obsessed is going to be shown at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame for free on
December 12th at 6:30 p.m. The showing is free but you have to make reservations. For more
information, see: http://www.rockhall.com/event/film-screening-of-color-me-obsessed/
THE REPLACEMENTS

The blog Great White Wonders has links to numerous recordings of live shows by The
Replacements and Paul Westerberg from every era, including a Replacements show at a
roller rink in 1982 where they cover Hank William’s “Hey Good Lookin’” followed by “Ace of
Spades”. And that perfectly demonstrates the genius of this band.
http://greatwhitewonders.blogspot.com/search/label/Replacements

Aquariumdrunkard.com has a column called Scratch the Surface, where they analyze iconic
album covers. Josh Neas perfectly describes how the cover of Let It Be sums up the band:
Every great contradiction that made the Replacements the best American rock and roll
band of the past thirty years is ensconced in that photograph. The roof on which they’re
perched seems the refuge of a heart-on-his-sleeve would-be romantic who escapes out
his bedroom window to peer up at the stars on lonely nights, a few, random trophies,
the evidence of attempts at conformity within the larger world, peering down at him
through the window. Yet, the whole fact that they’re on a roof in the first place seems
calculated, aimed at a depiction of the band as something outside the mainstream. This
posed photograph, intended to help them sell records, couldn’t seem to matter less to
the group of four who all seem preoccupied with their own intentions rather than
looking focused in any way. And still, despite this perceived nose-thumbing, there is the
juxtaposition of a band looking to be like the bands they idolized, the ones that made
them pick up a guitar or a set of drumsticks or a songwriter’s pen in the first place.
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2011/01/12/scratch-the-surface-the-replacements-let-it-be/

Christopher Charnock sums it up perfectly: “in high school, my sister had a pleased to
meet me cassette ... don’t know why - she liked the smiths. listening to it changed my life
... or at least made me feel less alone.”

(courtesy of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRa_2EwMdcE&feature=youtu.be)
YouTube now allows the denizens of the twenty-first century to hear the classic interview
of the Replacements on L.A.’s KROQ in 1987 when they showed up on the air drunk and
tried to give the FCC a heart attack.
Bill Holdenship was one of the interviewers and talked about the circumstances surrounding
the interview:
[I] can't believe that, after all these years, someone finally posted this on YouTube. This
was broadcast live on LA's ‘world famous’ KROQ, at approximately midnight, shortly
before ‘Pleased To Meet Me’ was released. The voices here include: DJs Swedish Egil
and Tom Graysick, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, John R. Kordosh (a lot; it probably
wasn't a good idea, in retrospect, to give my pal control over the phones), Slim Dunlap
(who denied being Alex Chilton's alter-ego early in the interview and then disappeared),
one of the band's managers, and yours truly (after the DJ asked Tommy a question and
Tommy plopped his microphone in front of me, instead).
Two things: The ‘gay’ stuff wasn't meant to be homophobic in the least. Earlier in the
day, as we grew more intoxicated, we began talking about ‘loaded’ words, and how
‘gay’ once meant ‘happy,’ which, in turn, made Elvis Presley singing ‘I'm gay every
morning, at night I'm still the same, oh, honey chile...’ hilariously funny years after the
fact. The drunker we got, the funnier it got. Hours later, we all ended up at a Long
Ryders show at Raji's, where the drinking continued unabated. When the managers and
label people came to tell the Replacements that they had to do a radio interview at 11:30,
Paul and Tommy absolutely did not want to do it and refused. Finally, they only agreed
to do it if John and I would go on the air with them to admit that we were ‘gay.’ And
while what may be funny in your 20's and 30's isn't as funny in your 50's, parts of this
still make me laugh out loud. Enjoy…

Stereogum has an opinion just like everyone else, and they ranked the Replacements
albums from their favorite to least favorite. There is no right or wrong answer when it
comes to opinions, (although pitchfork.com, in a rare display of earthy wisdom, awarded
Sorry Ma an exalted rating of 9.4, nearly the opposite of Stereogum who placed it near the
bottom). Even the lowest ranked Stink is heralded as containing “inescapable intelligence
and smirking humor [that] makes the EP feel closer in kind to the Descendants than some of
their angrier cohort, but it shreds with inarguable conviction.” It’s great to see the band get
the kind of critical laudations that twenty years ago were reserved for the Beatles and the
Stones. If nothing else, it’s a reminder of how few bands put out eight albums that do not
suck, much the dearth of bands that ever put out eight albums at all.
http://stereogum.com/1158462/the-replacements-albums-from-worst-to-best/list/attachment/stink/

Stereogum also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Pleased to Meet Me with a song by song
synopsis of what makes the album great. They did an empathetic job of describing where
the band was at when they went into the studio to record the album:
Seemingly by design, every single year was an ordeal for the Replacements, but even by
their established standard of practiced professional incompetence, the period leading up
to Pleased To Meet Me was a mess. Having made the jump to the big leagues, the ‘Mats
proceeded to demolish commercial ambitions with the same studied attention to detail
that their contemporaries R.E.M. impeccably used to build a mass audience. Despite its
slow-building brilliance, [their previous album] Tim received only a lukewarm
commercial reception, while the band introduced themselves to mainstream America
with a not-atypically addled performance on Saturday Night Live. Founding member and
lead guitarist Bob Stinson was fired by Westerberg and Stinson’s own younger brother
Tommy . . . .
For many, the band would never be the same minus Bob Stinson’s sad clown act and
over-the-top lead playing, which often pushed Westerberg’s soaring anthems into the
ecstatic. Clearly, though, the Replacements were heading ostensibly in a more refined
direction. For their follow-up, they decamped to a kind of spiritual home base: Ardent
Studios in Memphis, where they would record with legendary producer Jim Dickinson,
who in the previous decade had produced the three classic albums by Westerberg’s
heroes Big Star. It is seems fair to say that the affinity the Replacements felt for Big Star
was a product not only of musical admiration, but a sense of living through the same
thing trajectory. It had begun to seem that their surpassingly great music would never
quite be the fashion of the time, and that the delicate, diffident nature of the
personalities involved might be the final blow to any chance of being genuine hit
makers.
Westerberg’s evident ambivalence towards being a capital R Rock Star was always at
odds with a deep desire for a mass audience and an understandable envy toward certain
followers who managed to achieve it. He once memorably termed the Mats ‘the little
engine that could, but didn’t fucking feel like it.’ But great as they were, they did feel
like it and they really couldn’t. That sense of chip-on-your-shoulder frustration and
looming failure hovers all over the tough and lean 34 minutes of Pleased To Meet Me.
http://stereogum.com/1085052/pleased-to-meet-me-turns-25/top-stories/

15-20 years ago, it used to take months of tracking people down on the internet and driving
to record shows in distant towns to collect videotaped fragments of The Replacements.
Things that took months to find are now available instantaneously on YouTube. Here’s Paul
Westerberg’s promotional interviews for All Shook Down that reflects the tone of the
record, which hints at the downward emotional spiral of the band at the end of a decadelong run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgds4_sINjU&feature=related

The Replacements Live Archive Project is attempting to collect tour posters, ticket stubs,
reviews, and recordings of the Replacements playing live. Going through the groups’ posts
on Facebook is a nostalgic trip down memory lane of $8 ticket prices and seeing the names
of some of your favorite bands playing together as opening acts in small towns in rock clubs
of days passed. It’s also interesting to see the contemporary opinion of the Replacements,
at a time when independent music or even guitar rock wasn’t a prevalent genre on the
radio or in the press. (It’s odd to think how The Replacements’ three major label gambits
were competing with Madonna and Janet Jackson for time on the airwaves.)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Replacements-Live-Archive-Project/
Here’s a review of the Replacements in London on the 1991 All Shook Down tour from
Melody Maker. Even though the British press is infamous for its overly emphatic
superlatives, the review betrays genuine excitement for four dudes from the Midwest from
someone in London who normally paid to be painfully critical.
April 16, 1991
Marquee Club, London, England
Melody Maker Review
BOOZE IN THE HOUSE
THE REPLACEMENTS
LONDON MARQUEE
‘We played this song last time we were here and we'll play it 'till we die.’ Paul
Westerberg - Minneapolis genius geek who has masterminded The Great Bar Band in
America for the past decade - strikes into the lost Britpunk classic, The Only Ones'
'Another Girl Another Planet'.
The hot n' sweet guitar thrash, the searing, strangulated, melodic wanderlust are second
nature to Westerberg's band; they play the song like it was made for them. Play it, in fact,
as if it was one of Paul's own, a lost classic destined to be played forever in some parallel
universe rock n' roll nirvana.
The return of The Replacements had my fever running. I was scared, I was happy, I was
head over heels in anticipation and dreading it all at the same time. The last album
sounded as good as ever to me, but those that knew said it was practically a Westerberg
solo outing, that he was leaving the others behind. For their part the group had vowed,
with alcohol excess and what-not taking its toll, that they'd only tour if the record
company trumped up for a fully-paid medical crew to be in attendance at all times.
Just off their first big league US tour and with not so much as a nurse to wipe thier
fevered brows, how would they fare? Like Gods or like clapped out carthorses? We need
not have worried - Westerberg and Co were too good to
. . . [cut off in the scan of the original article] . . .
club’, admitted Paul, while the chin-jutting bassist Stinson gave short shrift to the frontrow request shouting.
As anyone with half an ear knows, Westerberg is the greatest songwriter of his
generation, the most perceptive observer of teen life in small town lost America. It's no
accident that both actress Winona Ryder and director Tim Burton toast The
Replacements as their favourite band. Like them, he's provided a vibrant, lacerating
counterpoint to the '80s' homogeneous mainstream muck.
I'd have been happy for The Replacements to repeat the showing they gave the last time
I saw them, a punch-drunk rampage through Paul's encyclopeadiac book of cover
versions. What we get is even better, a refresher course in the many wonders of
Westerberg's own world. 'Bastards of Young', 'Talent Show', the indescribably beautiful
'Androgynous'- the one where he sings ‘The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting
drunk’ [Telling Me Lies] - and the righteous pull-down 'Waitress in the Sky', dedicated
to uppity air hostesses everywhere.
The delirious head-over-heels excitement was interspersed with some heartbreaking
solo tales from the dusty outback (racism, native Americans, and social decay),
Westerberg showing that his songwriting facility is still maturing, stronger than ever.
Forget the scaremongers, there is no replacement. They are f---ing brilliant.
- Gavin Martin

Against Me (whose singer, Thomas Gabel, has recently decided to undergo hormone
replacement therapy to become Laura Jane Grace) and Joan Jett together covered The
Replacements' "Androgynous" at Terminal 5 in New York City.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcKKLZLXETc
PAUL WESTERBERG

Paul Westerberg gave an interview to Rolling Stone on the rumors of a Replacements
reunion and what he’s been up to these days.
Misdirection is my path. How many roads must a man walk down before you can call
him lost? I'm there, baby.
At this point, what do you like about writing a song on piano, rather than guitar?
The piano makes a better ashtray than the guitar. (Laughs) I still write on guitar. You
know, Tommy [Stinson] and I went in the studio last week. We strapped on the guitars,
not a word was said, and bang. We still rock like murder.
Does the new song mean we can expect a full album from you?
An album? Do we make albums still? I'm always recording songs and I declared my
independence from this technocracy, the whole notion of doing multiple takes and
overdubbing vocals and making it sound right. That has turned me off to being a
professional musician. I get offers all the time to make records, and I've got plenty of
songs.
I mean, after playing with Tommy last week, I was thinking, ‘All right, let's crank it up
and knock out a record like this.’ Maybe I'll do my own little piano record on the side.
The problem with a record is, people expect you to go out and play it [on tour]. I've
never played piano live – I don't know if I'd want to subject people to that.
Are you immune to large offers of money for a Replacements tour?
No, I'm not. I've had offers to play with them, or without them, that are becoming
stupidly ridiculous, to the point where someone thinks I'm playing hard to get. And it's
not like I'm wealthy. I'm getting by.
It was never about making money. If we can have a lot of fun, and make a lot of people
happy, and make a lot of money – which means making a lot of other people money –
then okay, I guess that's spiritually and economically sound.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-paul-westerberg-on-the-replacements-reunion-andbeing-a-middle-aged-rocker-20121009

Also on Rolling Stone, you can hear Westerberg’s latest song “My Road Now” [download
available from paulwesterberg.com], as well as his contribution to Kevin Bowe’s
“Everybody Lies”.
http://www.paulwesterberg.net/2012/09/21/download-new-westerberg-song-my-road-now/
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/everybody-lies-by-kevin-bowe-featuring-paul-westerberg-freemp3-20120928

Rocker Zine interviewed Tommy Keene, the guitarist for Westerberg’s 1996 solo tour, and
answered questions about what it was like playing with Paul:
I always loved The Replacements. And Paul loved my stuff. We sort of met and it was a
mutual admiration society. My group opened for The Replacements in 1989 on a leg of
their Don’t Tell A Soul tour. Years later I went out and played a little guitar on
(Replacements bassist) Tommy Stinson’s first solo album and Paul was there. Then
around the time Paul was doing the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Singles,
and Paul called me up to see if I would play guitar with him on The Tonight Show. That
never happened, but in 1996 he was in Toronto doing publicity for his solo stuff and my
band was playing there opening for The Gin Blossoms. Paul came to the show and said,
‘I’ve been having the hardest time finding a guitar player for my tour.’ I didn’t get the
hint. Then he started leaving me messages at home. I ended up joining him on tour
about 3 weeks later.
He was interesting because if your followed The Replacements you think of them as this
lovably amateurish punk band with great songs, but when I started playing with him in
rehearsal it sounded so perfect and so tight. It sounded almost like a Replacements
cocktail lounge cover band. Too perfect. As a fan I thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to see
this.’ Here’s a guy who you thought barely knew how to play and I soon realized that
was complete bullshit. He’s a very accomplished player. He could name every chord,
any key. If you weren’t playing exactly what he wanted to hear he would scream at
you. I think he wanted me in his band because I got it, I was a fan, and my style of guitar
playing fit. Then I would rough it up a bit. I still think a lot of fans thought that tour was
too slick anyway. He made us wear suits to which made it even slicker.
http://www.rockerzine.com/index.php/2012/03/tommy-keene-pops-forgottengenius/?utm_source=Rocker+Magazine+%3A+All+Subscribers+Master+List&utm_campaign=2628a8fc23-Phoenix+poll&utm_medium=email
TOMMY STINSON

Tommy was recently interviewed by the Jerusalem Post where he talked about his past and
present rock life.
‘To some degree, I feel I missed out on my childhood – I grew up real quick, and
sometimes I feel a bit of remorse,’ said Stinson, who grew up in Minneapolis tagging
along after his older brother Bob.
‘But I was kind of heading down a bad road when my brother taught me how to play
bass. I was already getting into lots of trouble, and [if] he hadn’t done that, I would have
been a disastrous teen – I wasn’t headed to the prom, let me put it that way.’
Stinson attributed it to their stubborn refusal to play the show business game in an era in
which most bands were assembly line, MTV-groomed.
‘I don’t know if we would have been the biggest band in the world, but a lot of our
actions were self-defeating, much of it really silliness about being contrary to everyone
because we didn’t want to conform,’ said Stinson. ‘A lot that was asked of us that didn’t
feel right, we simply didn’t do. In the end, that comes back to get you in the ass,
especially when you’re dealing with a major record label.’
http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Music/Article.aspx?id=274949

When Tommy’s previous solo album was released, he played “Motivation” on Greg
Kilborne and he’s on fire (figuratively).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Gui_ZHNkQ&feature=youtu.be

Most recently, Tommy’s performed four of his solo songs at a Daytrotter session.
http://www.daytrotter.com/?_escaped_fragment_=%2Fconcert%2Ftommy-stinson%2F20055701-37366

And just last night, Tommy joined an all-cast line-up at Dinosaur Jr.’s 25th anniversary of the
release of You’re Living All Over Me to cover “T.V. Eye” by the Stooges:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GA9ZkROH6w8

If you were lucky, you could have heard him playing on the street in London before one of
his Guns n’ Roses shows, raising money for rebuilding schools in Haiti.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLxbiHKM_g

One of Tommy’s solo shows at First Ave. in Minneapolis was joined by an out of control
Dave Pirner on a cover of “Teenage Kicks”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnHXovuFNCA&feature=youtu.be

Speaking of covers, here’s Tommy kicking ass on bass covering “My Generation” with the
Figgs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TuFk2SpVPU&feature=youtu.be

And a bittersweet rendition of Big Star’s “Nighttime” at South by Southwest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0cA0dj--I
CHRIS MARS

Chris Mars has released a short film called “In Hanford” about the victims of the nuclear
weapon production plants in Washington state during the Cold War. The film has a look like
an animated version of his surrealist, nightmarish art. It has begun to be shown at film
festivals, including Sundance.
A preview of “In Hanford”:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150594318878168
“In Hanford” in the Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2342151/
“In Hanford” to be shown at the Sundance Independent Film Festival:
http://www.sundance.org/festival/release/2013-sundance-film-festival-announces-shortfilm-program/
OTHER BELOVED BANDS FROM THE TWIN CITIES

Another member of the unholy trinity from Minneapolis, Soul Asylum, had a major change
of membership when last month guitarist Dan Murphy retired from the band he’s been in
for over three decades.
http://enterthesoulasylum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1525

And Gorman Bechard, director of Color Me Obsessed, decided to continue his love affair
with Minneapolis bands with his upcoming feature on Hüsker Dü’s drummer, Grant Hart, in
Every Everything:
http://www.citypages.com/2012-03-28/music/h-sker-d-s-grant-hart-gets-the-documentary-treatment/
In 1979, Grant Hart, along with Bob Mould and Greg Norton, formed Hüsker Dü in St. Paul,
Minnesota, and blazed an entirely new sonic trail never before heard. Combining the
uproarious rage of hardcore punk with the pop melodicism of 60's rock, they created the
template that nearly every guitar-based band after them followed, almost single-handedly
fabricating the sound that would later be credited to Nirvana and their ilk. Since their
breakup in 1988, Hart has continued to make music and art on his own terms that
consistently eschews fads and takes chances.
With Grant Hart as the only interview subject, the feature-length EVERY EVERYTHING will
tell the story of his life, from his beginnings, through his days in Hüsker Dü, and up to the
present. You'll learn about his early influences, his work as a visual artist, his collaborations
and friendships with people like William S. Burroughs and Patti Smith, his obsession with
Marcel Duchamp and Groucho Marx, his love of Studebakers, and everything else that
shaped his life and career. For the first time ever, you'll hear the life story of Hüsker Dü’s
Grant Hart as told by Grant Hart -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Think of it as a rock 'n'
roll FOG OF WAR!
‘This is the ultimate rock 'n' roll story,’ explains Bechard. ‘Grant Hart has seen it all, done it
all. And for anyone who's ever spent an hour with the man, you quickly realize he's one of
the most captivating story tellers you will ever meet.’
As he did with his last two documentaries, Bechard and his What Were We Thinking Films
banner are partially funding the film using the KickStarter crowd-sourcing site. He along
with producer Jan Radder begin production in New Haven in April, continuing through a
lengthy filming stint in Minneapolis in August.
‘COLOR ME OBSESSED redefined what a rock doc could be,’ Bechard adds. ‘But I’m not
done yet. I’m here to prove music documentaries can be inspiring, vibrant, and original, and
play not just to fans of the subject, but stand as works of art that speak to the human
condition.’
For more info on EVERY EVERYTHING please visit: www.EveryEverything.com
fin.
"For all that has been, thanks.
For all that will be, yes."
- Daj Hammarskjöld